Talk:Unicode block

Proposed moves of unicode block articles

• Alphabetic Presentation Forms → Alphabetic Presentation Forms (Unicode block)
• Ancient Greek Musical Notation → Ancient Greek Musical Notation (Unicode block)
• Arabic Extended-A → Arabic Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Arabic Mathematical Alphabetic Symbols → Arabic Mathematical Alphabetic Symbols (Unicode block)
• Arabic Presentation Forms-A → Arabic Presentation Forms-A (Unicode block)
• Arabic Supplement → Arabic Supplement (Unicode block)
• Bamum Supplement → Bamum Supplement (Unicode block)
• Block Elements → Block Elements (Unicode block)
• Bopomofo Extended → Bopomofo Extended (Unicode block)
• Braille Patterns → Braille Patterns (Unicode block)
• Byzantine Musical Symbols → Byzantine Musical Symbols (Unicode block)
• CJK Compatibility Forms → CJK Compatibility Forms (Unicode block)
• CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement → CJK Compatibility Ideographs Supplement (Unicode block)
• CJK Compatibility Ideographs → CJK Compatibility Ideographs (Unicode block)
• CJK Compatibility → CJK Compatibility (Unicode block)
• CJK Symbols and Punctuation → CJK Symbols and Punctuation (Unicode block)
• CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A → CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A (Unicode block)
• CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B → CJK Unified Ideographs Extension B (Unicode block)
• CJK Unified Ideographs Extension C → CJK Unified Ideographs Extension C (Unicode block)
• CJK Unified Ideographs Extension D → CJK Unified Ideographs Extension D (Unicode block)
• CJK Unified Ideographs Extension E → CJK Unified Ideographs Extension E (Unicode block)
• CJK Unified Ideographs Extension F → CJK Unified Ideographs Extension F (Unicode block)
• Cherokee Supplement → Cherokee Supplement (Unicode block)
• Combining Diacritical Marks Extended → Combining Diacritical Marks Extended (Unicode block)
• Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement → Combining Diacritical Marks Supplement (Unicode block)
• Combining Diacritical Marks for Symbols → Combining Diacritical Marks for Symbols (Unicode block)
• Combining Diacritical Marks → Combining Diacritical Marks (Unicode block)
• Combining Half Marks → Combining Half Marks (Unicode block)
• Common Indic Number Forms → Common Indic Number Forms (Unicode block)
• Control Pictures → Control Pictures (Unicode block)
• Coptic Epact Numbers → Coptic Epact Numbers (Unicode block)
• Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation → Cuneiform Numbers and Punctuation (Unicode block)
• Cyrillic Extended-A → Cyrillic Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Cyrillic Extended-B → Cyrillic Extended-B (Unicode block)
• Cyrillic Extended-C → Cyrillic Extended-C (Unicode block)
• Cyrillic Supplement → Cyrillic Supplement (Unicode block)
• Devanagari Extended → Devanagari Extended (Unicode block)
• Domino Tiles → Domino Tiles (Unicode block)
• Early Dynastic Cuneiform → Early Dynastic Cuneiform (Unicode block)
• Egyptian Hieroglyph Format Controls → Egyptian Hieroglyph Format Controls (Unicode block)
• Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement → Enclosed Alphanumeric Supplement (Unicode block)
• Enclosed Alphanumerics → Enclosed Alphanumerics (Unicode block)
• Enclosed CJK Letters and Months → Enclosed CJK Letters and Months (Unicode block)
• Enclosed Ideographic Supplement → Enclosed Ideographic Supplement (Unicode block)
• Ethiopic Extended-A → Ethiopic Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Ethiopic Extended → Ethiopic Extended (Unicode block)
• Ethiopic Supplement → Ethiopic Supplement (Unicode block)
• General Punctuation → General Punctuation (Unicode block)
• Geometric Shapes Extended → Geometric Shapes Extended (Unicode block)
• Geometric Shapes → Geometric Shapes (Unicode block)
• Georgian Extended → Georgian Extended (Unicode block)
• Georgian Supplement → Georgian Supplement (Unicode block)
• Glagolitic Supplement → Glagolitic Supplement (Unicode block)
• Greek Extended → Greek Extended (Unicode block)
• Greek and Coptic → Greek and Coptic (Unicode block)
• Hangul Jamo Extended-A → Hangul Jamo Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Hangul Jamo Extended-B → Hangul Jamo Extended-B (Unicode block)
• Hangul Syllables → Hangul Syllables (Unicode block)
• IPA Extensions → IPA Extensions (Unicode block)
• Ideographic Symbols and Punctuation → Ideographic Symbols and Punctuation (Unicode block)
• Kana Extended-A → Kana Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Kana Supplement → Kana Supplement (Unicode block)
• Katakana Phonetic Extensions → Katakana Phonetic Extensions (Unicode block)
• Khmer Symbols → Khmer Symbols (Unicode block)
• Latin Extended Additional → Latin Extended Additional (Unicode block)
• Latin Extended-A → Latin Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Latin Extended-B → Latin Extended-B (Unicode block)
• Latin Extended-C → Latin Extended-C (Unicode block)
• Latin Extended-D → Latin Extended-D (Unicode block)
• Latin Extended-E → Latin Extended-E (Unicode block)
• Letterlike Symbols → Letterlike Symbols (Unicode block)
• Linear B Ideograms → Linear B Ideograms (Unicode block)
• Linear B Syllabary → Linear B Syllabary (Unicode block)
• Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols → Mathematical Alphanumeric Symbols (Unicode block)
• Mathematical Operators → Mathematical Operators (Unicode block)
• Meetei Mayek Extensions → Meetei Mayek Extensions (Unicode block)
• Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs → Miscellaneous Symbols and Pictographs (Unicode block)
• Miscellaneous Symbols → Miscellaneous Symbols (Unicode block)
• Miscellaneous Technical → Miscellaneous Technical (Unicode block)
• Modifier Tone Letters → Modifier Tone Letters (Unicode block)
• Mongolian Supplement → Mongolian Supplement (Unicode block)
• Myanmar Extended-A → Myanmar Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Myanmar Extended-B → Myanmar Extended-B (Unicode block)
• Number Forms → Number Forms (Unicode block)
• Ornamental Dingbats → Ornamental Dingbats (Unicode block)
• Phonetic Extensions Supplement → Phonetic Extensions Supplement (Unicode block)
• Phonetic Extensions → Phonetic Extensions (Unicode block)
• Rumi Numeral Symbols → Rumi Numeral Symbols (Unicode block)
• Shorthand Format Controls → Shorthand Format Controls (Unicode block)
• Sinhala Archaic Numbers → Sinhala Archaic Numbers (Unicode block)
• Small Kana Extension → Small Kana Extension (Unicode block)
• Spacing Modifier Letters → Spacing Modifier Letters (Unicode block)
• Sundanese Supplement → Sundanese Supplement (Unicode block)
• Supplemental Arrows-C → Supplemental Arrows-C (Unicode block)
• Supplemental Punctuation → Supplemental Punctuation (Unicode block)
• Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs → Supplemental Symbols and Pictographs (Unicode block)
• Symbols and Pictographs Extended-A → Symbols and Pictographs Extended-A (Unicode block)
• Syriac Supplement → Syriac Supplement (Unicode block)
• Tai Viet → Tai Viet (Unicode block)
• Tamil Supplement → Tamil Supplement (Unicode block)
• Tangut Components → Tangut Components (Unicode block)
• Transport and Map Symbols → Transport and Map Symbols (Unicode block)
• Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Extended → Unified Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics Extended (Unicode block)
• Variation Selectors Supplement → Variation Selectors Supplement (Unicode block)
• Vedic Extensions → Vedic Extensions (Unicode block)
• Vertical Forms → Vertical Forms (Unicode block)
• Yi Radicals → Yi Radicals (Unicode block)
• Yi Syllables → Yi Syllables (Unicode block)

– A little more than half of the articles about unicode character blocks have the qualifier "(Unicode block)", the others (listed above) don't. I propose to rename the latter so that all of them do. Here are some reasons:

1. The current names are not descriptive of the subjects. A name like "Control Pictures", "Geometric Shapes", "Mathematical Operators", "Greek and Coptic" or even "Latin Extended-B" gives no clue that the topic of the article is a section of a specific computer character set.
2. The current names are not specific to the subject of the article. Even names like "Greek Extended" or "Miscellaneous Symbols", that one could infer are about character encodings, could apply to other character sets, besides Unicode, that were in use in the rather recent past, and would still deserve articles of their own.
3. The naming of the Unicode blocks is not consistent. The fact that only half of the articles have the "(Unicode block)" qualifier causes difficulties for editors and potential confusion for readers. For example, an editor intending to link to an article on the history and use of Braille system may link to Braille Patterns instead by mistake.
4. The articles violate the Wikipedia standards for titles. Many of the unqualified Unicode block articles are in the plural, have unnecessary capitalizations, or violate the standards in other ways. For example, to satisfy the standards the article Mathematical Operators should be named Mathematical operator. But of course that is not the name of the Unicode block; and it is the name of an article with a very different subject. Adding the qualifier "(Unicode block)" would satisfy the naming standards, besides avoiding confusion.
5. Those topics are not very notable and are only of specialized and ephemeral technical interest. The division of the Unicode character space into blocks is mostly an artifact of the way the Unicode Consortium discusses, approves, and documents proposals to include characters. It has only tenuous (and often very questionable) connections to the history, usage, or semantics of those characters.
   The division is relevant only to those who are interested in the history of Unicode, or who intend to propose new symbols for it.
   The division is not relevant to users of Unicode. On the contrary, to find the Unicode for a desired glyph, like a special math symbol or a letter with a certain modifier, one should ignore the block division and use Google or some other generic search tool -- because one cannot tell which block that symbol has been put into.
   The division is not even useful to font designers. While at some point one would find computer fonts that were limited to one or two specific blocks, that has never been a rule, and fonts are increasingly cutting across the Unicode block boundaries.

Apparently the names above were assigned without the "(Unicode block)" because it was felt that the qualifier was unnecessary, since there was no other page in Wikipedia with that name. But that is not what "unnecessary" means. Most of the names above have a common-sense meaning that has nothing to do with Unicode; so a qualifier is necessary to differentiate them from those common meanings. If you say "Geeometric Patterns", "Number Forms", or "Greek and Coptic" to someone, even to a computer expert, the last thing she will think of is the Unicode block of that name. Initially the moves will create a redirect from each unqualified name to the coresponding qualified name. I will try to replace all uses of the former by the latter. In some cases, like "Tai Viet" or "Mathematical Operators" the redirect is inappropriate or pointless, in which case it will be deleted or redirected to a more appropriate article. Note that, if one will type "Tai Viet" to the search window, the "(Unicode block)" article will be listed anyway as one of the suggested alternatives. There are also half a dozen cases where the Unicode block article was merged into an article about a language, script, or typography article:

• Phoenician (Unicode block) • Taixuanjing • Kangxi radical • Dingbat • Halfwidth and fullwidth forms

These merges should be undone, since the article about the Unicode block is suposed to have a lengthy section that documents the history of the block and the relevant Unicode Consortium publications, that do not belong to the articles above. For reference, the following articles are already named with the qualifier:

• Adlam (Unicode block) • Aegean Numbers (Unicode block) • Ahom (Unicode block) • Alchemical Symbols (Unicode block) • Anatolian Hieroglyphs (Unicode block) • Ancient Greek Numbers (Unicode block) • Arabic (Unicode block) • Armenian (Unicode block) • Arrows (Unicode block) • Avestan (Unicode block) • Balinese (Unicode block) • Bamum (Unicode block) • Basic Latin (Unicode block) • Bassa Vah (Unicode block) • Batak (Unicode block) • Bengali (Unicode block) • Bhaiksuki (Unicode block) • Bopomofo (Unicode block) • Brahmi (Unicode block) • Buginese (Unicode block) • Buhid (Unicode block) • CJK Strokes (Unicode block) • CJK Unified Ideographs (Unicode block) • Carian (Unicode block) • Caucasian Albanian (Unicode block) • Chakma (Unicode block) • Cham (Unicode block) • Cherokee (Unicode block) • Chess Symbols (Unicode block) • Coptic (Unicode block) • Cuneiform (Unicode block) • Currency Symbols (Unicode block) • Cypriot Syllabary (Unicode block) • Cyrillic (Unicode block) • Deseret (Unicode block) • Devanagari (Unicode block) • Dogra (Unicode block) • Duployan (Unicode block) • Egyptian Hieroglyphs (Unicode block) • Elbasan (Unicode block) • Elymaic (Unicode block) • Emoticons (Unicode block) • Ethiopic (Unicode block) • Georgian (Unicode block) • Glagolitic (Unicode block) • Gothic (Unicode block) • Grantha (Unicode block) • Gujarati (Unicode block) • Gunjala Gondi (Unicode block) • Gurmukhi (Unicode block) • Hangul Jamo (Unicode block) • Hanifi Rohingya (Unicode block) • Hanunoo (Unicode block) • Hatran (Unicode block) • Hebrew (Unicode block) • Hiragana (Unicode block) • Ideographic Description Characters (Unicode block) • Imperial Aramaic (Unicode block) • Indic Siyaq Numbers (Unicode block) • Inscriptional Pahlavi (Unicode block) • Inscriptional Parthian (Unicode block) • Javanese (Unicode block) • Kaithi (Unicode block) • Kanbun (Unicode block) • Kannada (Unicode block) • Katakana (Unicode block) • Kayah Li (Unicode block) • Kharoshthi (Unicode block) • Khmer (Unicode block) • Khojki (Unicode block) • Khudawadi (Unicode block) • Lao (Unicode block) • Latin-1 Supplement (Unicode block) • Lepcha (Unicode block) • Limbu (Unicode block) • Linear A (Unicode block) • Lisu (Unicode block) • Lycian (Unicode block) • Lydian (Unicode block) • Mahajani (Unicode block) • Mahjong Tiles (Unicode block) • Makasar (Unicode block) • Malayalam (Unicode block) • Mandaic (Unicode block) • Manichaean (Unicode block) • Marchen (Unicode block) • Masaram Gondi (Unicode block) • Mayan Numerals (Unicode block) • Medefaidrin (Unicode block) • Meetei Mayek (Unicode block) • Mende Kikakui (Unicode block) • Meroitic Cursive (Unicode block) • Meroitic Hieroglyphs (Unicode block) • Miao (Unicode block) • Modi (Unicode block) • Mongolian (Unicode block) • Mro (Unicode block) • Multani (Unicode block) • Musical Symbols (Unicode block) • Myanmar (Unicode block) • NKo (Unicode block) • Nabataean (Unicode block) • Nandinagari (Unicode block) • New Tai Lue (Unicode block) • Newa (Unicode block) • Nushu (Unicode block) • Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong (Unicode block) • Ogham (Unicode block) • Ol Chiki (Unicode block) • Old Hungarian (Unicode block) • Old Italic (Unicode block) • Old North Arabian (Unicode block) • Old Permic (Unicode block) • Old Persian (Unicode block) • Old Sogdian (Unicode block) • Old South Arabian (Unicode block) • Old Turkic (Unicode block) • Optical Character Recognition (Unicode block) • Oriya (Unicode block) • Osage (Unicode block) • Osmanya (Unicode block) • Ottoman Siyaq Numbers (Unicode block) • Pahawh Hmong (Unicode block) • Palmyrene (Unicode block) • Pau Cin Hau (Unicode block) • Phags-pa (Unicode block) • Phaistos Disc (Unicode block) • Psalter Pahlavi (Unicode block) • Rejang (Unicode block) • Runic (Unicode block) • Samaritan (Unicode block) • Saurashtra (Unicode block) • Sharada (Unicode block) • Shavian (Unicode block) • Siddham (Unicode block) • Sogdian (Unicode block) • Sora Sompeng (Unicode block) • Soyombo (Unicode block) • Specials (Unicode block) • Sundanese (Unicode block) • Superscripts and Subscripts (Unicode block) • Sutton SignWriting (Unicode block) • Syloti Nagri (Unicode block) • Syriac (Unicode block) • Tagalog (Unicode block) • Tagbanwa (Unicode block) • Tags (Unicode block) • Tai Le (Unicode block) • Tai Tham (Unicode block) • Takri (Unicode block) • Tamil (Unicode block) • Tangut (Unicode block) • Telugu (Unicode block) • Thaana (Unicode block) • Thai (Unicode block) • Tibetan (Unicode block) • Tifinagh (Unicode block) • Tirhuta (Unicode block) • Ugaritic (Unicode block) • Vai (Unicode block) • Variation Selectors (Unicode block) • Wancho (Unicode block) • Warang Citi (Unicode block) • Zanabazar Square (Unicode block)

Jorge Stolfi (talk) 22:01, 1 May 2019 (UTC)

• Comment. I think you're on the right track, but taken individually, I would say that while some clearly make sense (e.g. Mathematical Operators), others are a bit questionable (e.g. CJK Unified Ideographs Extension A), and the only justification for adding the parenthetical disambiguator in that case would be for WP:CONSISTENCY. I normally don't favor unnecessarily disambiguation, especially not unnecessary parenthetical disambiguation, but I recognize in rare circumstances it can be a valid solution and a general rule like this is not without precedent, cf. Wikipedia:Naming conventions (UK Parliament constituencies). I will wait to see what others have to say about this proposal. -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 02:58, 2 May 2019 (UTC)

• Agree. Makes sense, and I think this qualifies as a circumstance for which we can have a specific naming convention. Rajanala Samyak (talk) 01:52, 3 May 2019 (UTC)